French President Nicolas Sarkozy took refuge from a crowd of several hundred angry protesters in a cafe Thursday, as riot police swarmed in to protect him while he campaigned in the country's southwest Basque country. Riot police surrounded the Bar du Palais in central Bayonne where Sarkozy stayed for about an hour to get away from the protesters – some of them Basque nationalists, others carrying posters of rival Socialist candidate Francois Hollande. While he was inside, some of the protesters outside threw eggs toward the barrier of riot police guarding the cafe. French TV repeatedly showed footage of the crowds throughout the afternoon, though the images were often of supporters. The conservative Sarkozy trails Hollande, the front-runner, in the two pronged April and May presidential election.
